Muscoid flies including stable flies, house flies and horn flies cause losses to the US cattle industry amounting to billions of dollars per year. The impact of these flies on tourism, companion animals and human health have not been well quantified. Natural enemies take a heavy toll on these flies. Pteromalid pupal parasitoids frequently reduce fly populations by more than 50% naturally. Additional reduction can be accomplished by augmentative releases of pupal parasitoids. Efforts to locate more effective parasitoids in the Old World where these flies are native are on going. Many of these parasitoids are considered to have Holarctic distributions. In this study, we examined nuclear ribosomal DNA sequences of Spalangia spp. from Asia, Europe and North America. Spalangia cameroni and S. endius were genetically very similar across this range. Spalangia nigroaenea from Asia and Europe were divergent from their North American counterparts.
Species 1: Hymenoptera Pteromalidae Spalangia nigroaenea
Species 2: Hymenoptera Pteromalidae Spalangia muscidarum
Keywords: diagnostics, systematics
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